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To the guy who knows that the rose is more beautiful with the thorns still on it

I'd like to thank two people who have been with me from almost day one, whose combined efforts and business savvy have been so instru me somewhere I never dreaent, Richard Curtis

Chapter One

Haainst the back of my closet wasn't one of my h my comfortable sleepy haze, and I felt the priathering of will as I tried to wake up With an eerie feeling of disconnection, I watched it happen, even as in my dream I tore the clothes off the rod and threw them to my rumpled bed

So up The drea into hard-to-remember bits And with a jolt I realized I was conscious but not awake

What in hell? So, and instinct sent a pulse of adrenaline thoroughI wake But I didn't

My breath was quick and ragged, and after I emptied the closet, I dropped to the floor and tapped my knuckles on the boards for a secret corasped my will and forced myself awake

Pain reverberated through ed to turnHard wood pressed against h le I couldn't breathe! So to possess me!

Terror smothered me like a blanket I couldn't see it, couldn't hear it, could hardly sense it But my body had become a battlefield - one where I didn't knoin Possession was a black art, and I hadn't taken the right classes Damn it, my life isn't supposed to be like this!

Utter panic gave s and ared to rise to my hands and knees, then fell into my bedside table It crashed to the floor and rolled to the empty closet

My pulse haed to stagger into the hallway, looking for help My unknown assailant and I found coether, we took a breath that escaped in a choked cry Where the devil was Ivy? Was she deaf? Maybe she hadn't yet come in from her run with Jenks She'd said they'd be late

As if bothered by the cooperation, ripped harder, and I collapsed to the floor My eyes were open, and the red sheet of my hair stood between me and the end of the dusky hallway It had won Whatever it was, it had won, and I panicked as I foundup with an eerie slowness The thick scent of burnt a from my skin

No! I cried in hts - but I couldn't even speak I wanted to scream, but my possessor made me take a slow, sedate breath instead "Malu an odd accent and a sophisticated lilt that had never been mine

That was the last penny in the jar Fear shifted to anger I didn't knoas in here with ht now Making ues was just rude

Falling into hts, I felt the barest brush of someone else's confusion Fine I could build on that Before the intruder could figure out what I was doing, I tapped the ley line out back in the graveyard Stark, foreign surprise filled led to break hts

Practice ly, then bracedto hurt like hell

I opened hts to the ley line with an abandon I'd never dared before And it caic roared in It overflowedony, the word opening the y

The rush would have killed me if I hadn't already burned a trail of nerves fro, I felt the power sear anew as it raced to the protection circle init like a balloon It was how I spindled ley line energy to use later, but at this rate it was like diving into a vat of molten metal

An internal yelp of pain resounded in me, and with a mental push that I mirrored with my hands, I shoved away from myself

A snap reverberated through me, and I was free of the unknown presence Fro - an echo of my actions

So rolled and bumped down the corridor to crash into the wall at the end of the hall I gasped and pulledhurt I held too much ley line power It felt as if it had settled in y out

"Ow," I panted, very aware that so up But at least noasn't in my head My heart beat, and that hurt, too Oh God, I'd never held this much power before And I stank I reeked of burnt a on?

With a pained determination, I squeezed the protection circle in hit in But when I unspindled the ever-after frohts to leave only that which my chi could hold, I looked up past the snarls of

Oh, God It was Newt

"What are you doing here?" I said, feeling coated in ever-after slime

The powerful des to appreciate its shocked expression: either a s-featured female Slender of build, it stood barefoot in , I looked again - yeah, the de, bony feet definitely pressing the floorboards - and I wondered hot had round The addition to the church, where it stood noasn't sanctified, though, and it looked bewildered, wearing a dark red robe that looked soht wear on his day off

There was a soft blurring of black ley line energy, and a slender obsidian staff as tall as I wasthe vision I remembered from the time I had been trapped in the ever-after and had had to buy a trip home from Newt The demon's eyes were entirely black - even what should be the whites - but they were more alive than any I'd ever seen as they stared atdown the twenty feet that separated us - twenty tiny feet and a swath of hallowed ground At least I hoped it was still hallowed ground

"How did you learn how to do that?" it said, and I stiffened at the odd accent, the vowels that seemed to insert themselves into the folds of my brain

"Al," I whispered, and the deainst the wall, I never took my eyes from it as I slid upward to stand This was not the way I wanted to start my day God help ht

"What's theto burn off some adrenaline as I stood in the hallway still in the skimpy shirt and shorts I wore to bed "No one suround? Deround It's in every book"

"I do what I want" Newt peered into the living roo for traps "And assu the strand of black gold that glinted dully against the round - you were And Minias Minias said I wrote ht they are?"

Its smooth features melted into annoyance, at itself, not ht," Newt said, its voice distant "Or e it and don't tell me"

My face went cold in the predawn chill Neas insane I had an insane de ho this powerful survive being this unbalanced? But unbalanced seldoh powerful did And clever And ruthless Demonic

"What do you want?" I asked, wondering how long until the sun would rise

With a troubled look, Newt exhaled "I don't re of mine I want it back"

While unknown eed the to decide if it wasthey wanted to Right not had pale eyebrows and a light, absolutely even skin tone I'd say it was fe and those bare feet were too bony to be pretty Nail polish would look wrong on them

It earing the saht sides and a flat topThe short, nondescript hair falling to just below the ear gave no clue to gender The time I'd questioned what sex he or she was, Newt had asked le to place a thought, I had a feeling it wasn't that the demon didn't think it was important but that Newt didn't remember what parts he or she had been born with Maybe Minias did Whoever Minias was

"Newt," I said, hopingvoice wasn't too obvious, "I demand you leave Go directly to the ever-after froain"

It was a good banish put it in a circle first - and Newt raised one eyebrow at me, its puzzlement set aside with an ease that spoke ofname"

The demon jerked into h it would be, undrawn and unscribed - but Newt stepped into the living roo around the doorfra pulled fro, and Neore colorfully in Latin